Peach County Workforce Center Groundbreaking | News

Title (Max 100 Characters)

Leaders in Peach County have been digging into the idea of a new workforce center for around 20 years.

Today, many of them stood around as the first shovel of dirt was turned for the official groundbreaking.

"A lot of blood sweat and tears have gone into it, some of it was mine and I gave it freely, but this has been an exciting project," said Charles Sims, the executive director of the Peach County Development Authority.

While the project may have been exciting, it was long as well.

The Peach County Workforce Development Center is expected to train students through hands on technical classes, like truck driving, welding, and diesel mechanics.

But according to Peach County Chairman Melvin Walker, the center started off as an idea by commissoners in the early 90s.

"This is not the first time we tried to finance this thing. We tried in 2003, we didn't make it, we tried again in 2007, we didn't make it and we tried again in 2012," Walker said.

And now, the concept is finally taking shape.

The center will be operated by Central Georgia Technical College and will cost about 5.3 million dollars to build.

It is being funded by the 2015 Peach County SPLOST, 2 grants, the Peach County Development Authority and Central Georgia Technical College.

"They're gonna have a truck driving facility. We're actually building a 300 by 300 foot concrete pad behind the building for their truck driver training. They will have a drive through industrial lab, said Paul Schwindler.